Hey! I suffer with Anxiety, OCD and depression. I'm really struggling with my OCD, I feel like I need to wash my hands more, I'm biting my nails down as far as I can and I feel like I constantly need to be touching things that make me cringe such as carpets with both hands and i can't cope with it because it's every minute. The main thing I have to do is grind all my nails on the carpet and I get intrusive thoughts to do this every minute and it’s really making me upset. Does anyone else get this? Is there any advice anyone has?

I’ve chewed my nails and skin around my nails since birth it feels like. My fingers look deformed, when they get water on them they get all white and puffy. almost like if you stay in a pool too long and get that weird water log on your hands. Only I put my hands in water for like 30 seconds and they puff up instantly. I believe I made it one of my OCD routines. I have to constantly check if there’s no loose skin or nails sticking out, and if there is I have to chew it off then I just don’t stop chewing until my finger is bleeding. It’s a very bad habit but it relieves my anxiety when I do it. I’m tired of my deformed, red, bloody fingers and nails it’s so embarrassing.

Hi. I found this website through listening to a podcast. I am undiagnosed OCD, but I am absolutely sure I've got it, and I'm really struggling. I feel lonely and my head will literally not give me a moment's peace. It all started a year ago. I have always been the anxious type, but a really intrusive/alarming thought randomly entered my head - it wasn't intrusive/alarming in the sense of distressing explicit content (as I know this is common with OCD), it was intrusive & alarming in regards to the future and a worse case scenario happening. I spiralled from here and over a year later I'm really struggling in this same spiral. I have to check things constantly. If I can't check, I become quickly distressed. But, even if I can check, sometimes it's not enough and I still doubt and become distressed. I am CONSTANTLY scanning for danger - no matter how small, or insignificant. I am CONSTANTLY pre-occupied by worse case scenario and I try and plan repeatedly in my head 'just in case'. I replay the past in my head on a constant loop trying to desperately remember if I did/didn't do something. I then 'test' myself by trying to remember things that I can check in the here and now - if I get it wrong, I become pre-occupied and distressed. I'm very vigilant about 'covering any tracks' where I could have 'slipped up', e.g. did I send that text to the right person? Or fully believing that my phone has malfunctioned and has sent stuff to people who I wouldn't want to see it. I then check and recheck. I have urges to straighten things, touch things etc. when my brain tells me to so that I stay 'safe'. Every OCD incident, pattern etc. I have a real need to share and seek reassurance from friends and family, but not only do I realise that ultimately this reinforces my OCD, friends and family are fed up and have a 'what now?' attitude. It's so lonely and I want to beat OCD once and for all. It's an absolutely miserable way to live.

I obsess constantly about my hands being dirty and feel like I can actually see the germs and bacteria crawling all over my hands if I can’t wash them as soon as I touch something. It’s really embarrassing since people in my life have noticed this “weird” behavior but it’s a huge problem for me and I don’t know how to make the obsessive thoughts stop.